Yep. It’s pretty broken. I tried taking the RSS link off of the old menu-bar, and the whole damned thing just crashed. Had to delete my custom ComicPress theme (*sniff*), and fiddle around with files via FTP. Insert picture of “I have no idea what I’m doing!” dog here.

Long story short; the site will look like crap until my life starts to make sense again (could be a while).

MJ

EDIT: Oh hey. Retro backup-version. Neat. I got rid of it for a reason, but it’ll do for now.

I forgot to mention that I’ve disabled commenting of any kind. Unless you get in touch with me to create a user/contributor account, the discussion side of the site no longer exists. I was getting a bazillion fake users signing up, and figured that wasn’t a good thing, so I shut the whole operation down.

As part of my upper-year course on Greek and Roman Epic, I get to create a graphic novel based on the Aeneid. Well, part of the Aeneid. Actually, just two pages of the Aeneid. The thing is, I like drawing, and I like adapting epic literature for use in my comics, so I’m preparing to go a little crazy with this project. My plan is simple: I’ve got twelve weeks of class, and there are twelve books in the Aeneid. I hope to boil each book down to about three comic pages, making this more-or-less a thirty-six-pager. A few books might be longer, a few will be shorter.

Needless to say, this is a huge task for me. The last time I produced 36 pages in a year was back when I first launched Spartachick, and even that was a bit iffy at times. The goal here is to develop a simple style that can be sketched, inked, and coloured with little aggravation on my part. There will not be a lot of depth, shading will be minimal, and the laws of perspective will, no doubt, be shattered.

What do I hope to achieve? The project is worth 50% of my final grade, which provides some impetus. Honestly, though, I see this as my last real chance to get back into the game. I miss drawing, and let myself down when I gave up. I need this. I need to feel that my work matters in some way (even if it’s just for some class project). My hope is that this project will force me to streamline and solidify my workflow. Drawing used to be natural for me; setting aside time, sketching ON PAPER, writing, planning, imagining.

Anyway, I’m barely making sense to myself right now, so I’ll just end it here.

In other news, you now have to subscribe to the website to post comments! There’s no fee, obviously, but I had to do something to kill the spambots dead. Hopefully I don’t get ten thousand new subscribers who want to sell me cheap watches, meds, jackets, and knockoff jerseys (Go Maklin!). It’s inconvenient, I know, but there are only, like, two of you who actually visit this damned ghost-town anyway.

We’ve known each other for quite some time now, so I feel comfortable asking you a rather personal favour. Please, please, please, for the love of all that is good and holy, LEAVE ME ALONE! I don’t give a damn about car insurance; if I’m depressed, I can find my own solution; and while I certainly appreciate your interest in my artistic development, just shouting “ART SCHOOL! ART SCHOOL! COLLEGE DEGREE!” doesn’t exactly qualify as friendly advice. No, emoticons don’t help the situation.

Now, that might sound a little harsh, and I’m sorry if I’ve offended you. If it’s any consolation, I’m incredibly proud of you for dropping the gambling discussion, and I almost shed a tear of joy when you started babbling about the sunset of Rome’s regal period. These are good things!

I’m not asking much. Please, just be a little more considerate when clogging my inbox with mind-numbing gibberish.